The final destination of our trip was Angeles City, the second largest sex tourism destination in the world. This was a difficult way to end the trip, but at the same time, I’m really glad I didn’t start the trip with this. It was a dark, heavy place, and I was definitely out of my comfort zone.

While I was taking pictures in front of a bar on the Walking Street, a man approached me and asked me to take his picture with a group of bar girls (pictured below). After the group shot, and an off-color comment, the man introduced Becker and I to his girlfriend, who is in the next picture. He told us what a great time was waiting to be had in Angeles, and we chatted with him for a few minutes. Before we parted ways, he asked how he could get copies of the pictures I took. He gave us his email address, and after we returned to our hotel that night, we looked him up on Facebook. Turns out, his name is Michael Wiener, and he is a former New Mexico State Senator, and the current County Commissioner in Bernalillo County.

Angeles was a strange place, because for the previous 8 days in the Philippines, we saw very few caucasians. As soon as we arrived in Angeles, we saw hundreds of middle aged and older white men everywhere we went with young Filipino women. I saw some extremely disturbing things, and felt a heavy darkness in Angeles. I don’t really know if it is necessary to go into any detail about all of that stuff, but I also don’t really feel like talking about it any further. I think these images say what I feel needs to be said.

This is the one picture from this series that is not from Angeles. Pegasus is in Manila, but it fit so well with this series, and I had to find a way to show it. The sign says it all. Pegasus is a high end club that is known for selling very young girls. They charge $500 just to get in the door.

I love and hate these pictures. From a photographic standpoint, I am really proud of this series of images taken at the PREDA Foundation. On the other hand, I hate that these pictures need to exist, and that this is a story which needs to be told. It seems impossible to ignore the devastation and loss of innocence these images also represent. But fortunately I do see hope in these images as well. I believe we were created with the capacity to choose great evil, but thankfully we also have the choice to love, which I believe has the power to overcome all else. At PREDA, I met some wonderful people who have made the decision to simply love, and care for the people who have been exploited and experienced so much devastation.

I arrived at PREDA with only 2 hours to work with before Becker and I had to take a taxi to Angeles City. It was a bit hectic when we arrived, and we didn’t have much back story or time to prep for this stop. After meeting Alex, the program director, I asked if I could take a tour and look around. The tour started in the administrative offices, followed by the kitchen and then some classrooms. It wasn’t exactly what I was looking for or interested in. Eventually, we went down a hall and into a large room filled with colorful metal bunk beds and bright blankets. Half of the room was lined with large windows, streaming in midday light. As I took it all in, I asked my tour guide what the room was, and she told me it was the girls dorm, for children 9 and under. To clarify, these are children age 9 and younger who have been sexually abused both commercially and domestically. Unbelievable.

I started the day expecting to make portraits, but this room was speaking to me, and drawing me in. I didn’t have my camera with me, and after looking around for a moment, I burst out of the room, and down the hall to get my camera and tripod. I think my guide thought I was a bit strange, leaving the way I did with no explanation, but I couldn’t move fast enough. I was in a zone. I spent maybe the next hour shooting these images of the girls dorm, although it felt like I was only there about 5 minutes.

Girls lockers.

Primal therapy room.

Father Shay, founder of PREDA Foundation in Olongapo, Philippines, on Subic Bay. Father Shay has dedicated his life to fighting for children who have been sexually exploited both commercially and domestically. He has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize 3 times, and I sincerely hope he is recognized by one in the near future.

I just can’t decide between these two portraits. It is usually pretty easy for me to make these kind of decisions, but there is something about each of these that I can’t get past. It doesn’t help that everyone else I have asked have said both as well. What do you think?

Father Shay’s desk. Nearly 40 years of hard work has happened here. I can’t even imagine the phone calls, letters, and meetings that have taken place here over the years.

PREDA Foundation is a service provider for sexually exploited children in Subic Bay, Philippines, which infamous as a destination for sex tourism. From their website:

“In 1974, with Filipino helpers, Fr. Shay Cullen established the PREDA organization (Peoples’ Recovery Empowerment and Development Assistance Inc.) to give shelter and protection and recovery to victims of abuse and more importantly to change this unjust situation in society that abandons children and criminalizes them and prostitutes them or allows them to be abused without getting help and justice.”

PREDA provides many crucial services to the children, including residential care homes organized by age – one for girls as young as 9 years and under.

This is the third post from my assignment in the Philippines for Arts Aftercare. You can see all of the posts from this trip by clicking on the Arts Aftercare tag. For those of you who are just joining in, the following portraits are of people who have been affected in some way by sexual exploitation. Some of the people are volunteering, or caring for survivors, some of the people are survivors, and one person is simply family member of a victim of sexually exploitation.

Some of my favorite moments in the Philippines were when I was able to walk through neighborhoods, and photograph people in their homes. It took several days before I was able to find transportation, and arrange times with people, but once I was able to establish some trust and familiarity, things began to fall into place. I only wish I had more time in Manila to take more of these. I have intentionally left out some of the names for various reasons.

The mother in this family is a volunteer at Samaritana, where she teaches women how to sew. I photographed them at their home just outside the garbage community in Manila.

Jonathan Nambu is the co-director of Samaritana with his wife Thelma. They were our wonderful hosts while we were in Manila. I photographed him at his home in the backyard.

This young woman is in the Samaritana program for women who have been sexually exploited. She lives in a small home with a large number of her family members along with extended family.

This is the girls father (pictured above). He collects recyclable garbage for a living, and has a small shop in the front of the family’s home.

I was able to spend quite a bit of time with Krys on this trip, and got to know her a bit more than others. She works at Samaritana, and spends a good amount of her time on the streets at night forming relationships with pimps, and women who are being exploited. She has such an amazing heart, and her story is deeply moving. This shoot was especially fun, because we got to ride a trike, transfer to a jeepney, and then take a long walk to get to her apartment where this portrait was taken. I’m a sucker for a good trike ride on the deadliest highway in the world.

This woman also works at Samaritana, and she lives in a squatter community, which is like nothing I have ever experienced before. A squatter community is exactly as it sounds. People build homes right on top of, and next to each other, regardless of who owns the land. Power lines and other resources are spliced, and it looks a bit like controlled chaos. From a photographic standpoint, one thing I love about many of these images, is that there was often only one natural light source in each home, which provided a single stream of beautiful light to work with.

Survivor in the Samaritana program, photographed in her friends home.

I shot all but one of these images on my Vanguard tripod. It was fun to work this way for a change with natural light. It made me slow down and take a different approach. I even slowed down my breathing, to accommodate the timed exposures. I feel a deep connection with each of these images, and I also feel a different kind of appreciation for these because of the process. I am really looking forward to creating more work like this at some point.

This is the second post from my assignment in the Philippines for Arts Aftercare. You can read the first post, as well as this entire series by clicking on the Arts Aftercare tag.

After arriving in Manila and getting acclimated, my main focus was to document the art therapy training by the Arts Aftercare staff. Leaders from several organizations in the Philippines and abroad attended the training, which took place over the course of 3 days. When I was not in the training, I spent the rest of my time trying to figure out who is who, and what direction I wanted to go with my personal work, which would be to tell a story about the sex industry in the Philippines. We would be spending about 6 days in Manila, and then we would head to 2 other towns and visit organizations working with survivors of sexual exploitation.

One of the things I was hoping for the most out of this trip was an opportunity to make portraits of some of the survivors of sexual exploitation. Our hosts told us that they thought only a couple of the women would be willing to be photographed, but we would just have to ask and see what they say. We arrived on a Thursday afternoon, and wouldn’t be able to ask until Monday. It was a long weekend of waiting. Understandably there are some really complicated issues that come up when photographing people who have had to deal with something like this. It was important, but also really difficult for me to remember that, as I had my heart set on making portraits of at least a few of the survivors.

When Monday came around, Becker and I introduced ourselves to the group and told them what we were there for, and what we hoped to accomplish. We walked out of the room and gave them time to talk about it among themselves. Not long after, someone came out and told us that every single woman had agreed, and they were really excited to be photographed.

I quickly grabbed my gear and set up at a bus stop just down the street from the organization. It was incredibly hot and humid, but I somehow made it through, on excitement and adrenaline while I shot for the next 2.5 hours. It was such a fun shoot.

Sexual exploitation is such a heavy subject, but what really made an impact on me was the hope and joy I saw in so many of the women who are going through the recovery process. After spending time with them, I decided to make the portraits with an overall hopeful feel, which is why I chose the brightly colored wall as a background. I directed the women a little, but tried to interject as little as possible to allow these images to feel more natural and reflective of each woman’s personality. I let them pose how they felt most comfortable, and tried to keep things as natural as possible. These women are so incredible, and they have amazing strength and beauty. I hope that comes through as you look at these portraits.

My intent in doing this project was to help spread the word about the exploitation of women and children which is going on all around us. Hopefully by sharing these images and stories, others might feel inclined to get involved in the fight and healing process. As the week went by, my focus became sharper and sharper on creating great images which told a captivating story. My approach could be described as a bit selfish at times, as I was solely thinking about what I could do, or where I needed to go to get the shot. After this shoot was finished, I began hearing from a few people about how much this experience meant to the women. The big 5 ft. octabank, Curtis holding the big flag, Becker shooting video, and my Hasselblad camera, all made them feel like they were a part of something fancy and exciting. It seemed pretty normal to me, but that type of experience is not something everyday people are a part of very often. On top of that, I was working really hard to make the pictures look great from a visual interest standpoint, but to the women, it all made them feel beautiful and pampered. It was a good feeling to be a part of that, but it still didn’t fully hit me until the next day.

The next day we were back at the house, and everyone was finishing up training. I was waiting for a ride to another site to take pictures. The house we were staying at was beautiful, but not a place I felt was conducive to anything I thought would be visually interesting. As I was watching everyone laughing and going through the drama portion of the training, it hit me. Forget about yourself and your portfolio for once, and use that camera in your hands to really make an impact on someone. It’s easy to help others when my portfolio is also benefiting from it, but how about taking pictures that only benefit others. A totally new concept for me. I told one of the leaders that I was willing to take pictures of the women with friends, groups, whatever they wanted. And for the next 45 minutes, we took pictures of people jumping off chairs, human pyramids, group poses, and on and on. It was so awesome. They came up with their own ideas, and it was fun to see them take charge and direct everyone. The pictures are not ones I will be showing, or putting in a portfolio, but they brought a lot of joy to those in them, and that was a powerful experience and a good lesson for me.

Last month I wrote about an upcoming assignment in the Philippines for an organization called Arts Aftercare. Here is a link to the post if you are interested in the backstory, but basically I was working with the story of sexual slavery, human trafficking, and the work people are doing to help survivors. I was gone for 10 days in the beginning of March, and I got back to the States a few weeks ago. After taking some time to rest, and reflect on the trip and what I saw, I finally feel like I am at a point now where I have processed enough of the trip, and I can share my thoughts and more importantly, my pictures. I feel like this project makes the most sense when split up into 4 or 5 different stories. The first part of the story is arriving in Manila and getting somewhat acclimated to my surroundings.

I have never had to think so much about an assignment as I did on this trip. There are so many variables to consider, which I have never had to think about on past assignments. One of the things I found myself thinking about a lot on this trip was journalistic integrity. Thankfully I was traveling and working with my close friend, and filmmaker Eric Becker who I learned so much from. It would have been a totally different experience for me if I didn’t have him there for support, and just overall great companionship. When I was in Liberia last year, I took pictures of anyone, because everyone in the entire town I was in, was effected in one way or another by the lack of clean drinking water. It was something that had a broad reach, and just about any person, place or thing seemed relevant to the story. In the Philippines, I was trying to tell a story about sexual slavery. Although prostitution seemed to be everywhere I turned, it is not so easy to create a visual story without being painstakingly careful. For example, we stayed at the Holiday Inn Resort when we visited Angels City. Just in the short time I spent in the lobby during a 24 hour period, I saw 20 or so men bring back, or meet prostitutes in the lobby. Everyone knows what is going on, but at the same time, seeing a 65 year old American man and a 20 year old Filipino girl walking to a hotel room is not proof of what is going on. Sometimes the age difference was not so great, and it certainly isn’t fair to assume every white guy and Filipino girl are in anything other than a serious relationship. Being a portrait photographer, I wanted to photograph so many different people, but I knew I needed to be careful what I was implying by including someones portrait or picture in a series like this. I didn’t photograph the bellhop at the hotel I was staying at and say he is somehow a part of the story, anymore than I would want someone photographing me in the Philippines and saying I was somehow involved. There is actually a lot of human trafficking that happens in Seattle. Seattle is a major player in human trafficking unfortunately, but that doesn’t mean you can photograph anyone in Seattle and say they are part of the story. Some of you may be thinking what I am saying seems pretty obvious, but it was new for me, and took a lot of thought to work through.

With all of that being said, these images are from our travels to Manila from Seattle, as well as wandering around and exploring Manila after we first arrived. Which I might add, we didn’t have much time to explore. None of these images are linked to or are intended to be linked to prostitution or human trafficking, but they help set the stage for where I was in the Philippines, and what my surroundings were like.

I am really excited to share more from this trip in the coming days and dive into the images I am most excited about. As always, thanks for your interest!

On another note, all of these images were edited with VSCO Film which is an amazing image editing tool for Lightroom, Aperture, and Camera RAW. It has totally sped up my workflow, improved my images, and is one of my favorite tools as a photographer. Check it out for yourself here. I also wrote a couple of reviews here and here with processed images if you want to find out more.

As you may know, last January I traveled to Liberia with a team from MiiR to document the clean water wells they are funding in areas that don’t have access to safe water. It was an incredible experience for many reasons, but it also opened my eyes to a much bigger world than the one I live in on a typical day. A lot has gone on and been discussed in the past year since I went on that trip, and one of the many things I came away with was a newfound excitement and desire to help educate and inspire others to bring about positive change by using the unique gifts we all possess. I really love the work I get to create as a commercial photographer, and I find myself laughing a lot which is such a blessing. But because of my experience in Liberia, I have decided that I want to be about something much bigger than myself. I want my brand to be something people not only associate with creative photography and portraits, but also with a love for justice and for others. I am still processing what this all means, and how it will play out, but one thing I know is that I would like to be involved in at least one campaign per year where I can help tell a story that needs to be heard. I want to be a voice for the voiceless, and help those who can’t help themselves. Even though my efforts have been focused on overseas projects so far, I believe there are stories and challenges right here in Seattle that need to be brought to our attention as well. I think there is something to be said about traveling overseas, and getting out of ones comfort zone though. It is good to experience new challenges and different cultures, but I hope to also find stories to be involved with in the States at some point also. Unfortunately, the story I am going to document in the Philippines is also a serious problem right here in Seattle.

That being said, at the end of the month, I will be traveling to the Philippines with an organization called Arts Aftercare. It is a nonprofit bringing the arts to survivors of slavery, which was started by my college friends Curtis and Grace Romjue. The purpose of the trip is to train care workers in a new art therapy curriculum which will be introduced to survivors of sexual slavery. I will be photographing survivors, youth advocates, and trying to tell the story of what life is like for people who are trapped in slavery, as well as those who have been freed. Thankfully, I will be traveling with my good friend and filmmaker Eric Becker who will be telling the same story through video. It will be a collaborative effort, and I am really excited to start working on this so we can shine a light in the dark places of the world. I was shocked to recently find out that modern day slavery is a bigger problem today than slavery has ever been in the history of the world. What’s even worse is that not only are many of the slaves children, but they are forced into sex 10 to 20 times a day.

A friend of mine emailed me me a video this morning about a girl who had been sold by her mother into sexual slavery. I could only watch about 2 minutes of it before I turned it off. This sucks. I hate reading about this stuff, and it is beyond sad. What is wrong with people? is the question I find myself repeating over and over. I leave in less than a month, and I thought I should start writing about my thoughts as this assignment approaches. My hope is that some of you will be inspired to take action, and in turn tell your personal network about the work that needs to be done. I also feel like I need to do what I can to prepare myself for what I will be confronted with. As my wife reminded me today, I tend to cover my ears and walk out of the room when I hear her nurse friends talking about something that makes me queazy. I guess if I am being honest, I like to be comfortable, and I don’t like to be burdened. Not really the best way to live life, as nobody ever said life was meant to be comfortable. I also feel like you never know what is possible until you put something out there.

I know there are many of you who are already involved in fighting modern day slavery through organizations like International Justice Mission and others. My hope is that by sharing this, some of you may feel inclined to help fight for justice by giving of your unique gifts. Maybe you are a medical worker, a writer, a teacher… The possibilities are endless. We are also still looking for funding for a portion of this trip, so there is also a financial need at this point. If you are interested in becoming involved, you can write me (john@keatleyphoto.com) or Curtis Romjue (curtis@artsaftercare.org / www.artsaftercare.org). You can donate through the Arts Aftercare donation page and mention this trip in the comment field aftercare.org/donate. If you have any experience with social justice, or working around such a heavy situation, I would love to hear from you. It’s going to be a difficult trip, and I know I am going to need help and encouragement.